The invention concerns a longitudinal-stroke internal combustion engine of the type having a fixed housing and a plurality of pistons reciprocally movable in cylinders parallel to the axis of a crankshaft that is rotatably mounted in the housing. A wobble-type piston actuation member is rotatably supported on the crankshaft, such member being connected to the pistons by means of individual connecting rods and ball joints. Facilities carried by the crankshaft are provided for successively effecting communication between the suction and exhaust ports of the engine and successive ones of the cylinders via a cylinder head having a plurality of gas exchange channels in fixed communication with the respective cylinders.
In known machines of this type typified by the arrangement described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,282,179, such last-mentioned facilities include a cam arrangement which, by means of cyclic impulses, effects the opening and closing of the gas exchange channels by means of valves supported for oscillation in the housing.
Such typical arrangements manifest excessive play, wear and tear and vibration in the relatively moving parts, whereby the relation of such parts continually change and as a result the subassemblies necessary for the control of the valve and cam assemblies require regular supervision and frequent maintenance. Additionally, the construction of this type of machine is bulky, complex and expensive; further, no satisfactory provisions have been available for the dynamic balancing of the machine to permit high rotational speeds of the crankshaft.